Sleepless Nights
by PAT THE KITSUNE
Summary: When Dib starts having nightmares at night, only one individual can help him fall back to sleep, that individual being Zim. But will Dib allow him to get close enough to do that? And what are the meanings behind these bizarre nightmares Dib is having?ZADR
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Alright. I know what you're all thinking. I'm crazy for starting another RP with somebody but I love RPing with different people. So just shut up, sit back, and enjoy the ZADRness of this story. And if you don't like ZADRness, then you probably shouldn't be reading this story to begin with.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Zim: Sassafrass002

Dib: Me

Beta: Notgonnadie

Hope you all enjoy chapter 1. Chapter 2 will be coming soon. ^_^

A boy shifted uncomfortably in his bed, tossing his head left and right, desperately fighting a foe seen only to him. He was having a nightmare, one he had experienced more than once within the past few weeks.

"NO!" he screamed, jolting awake suddenly and sitting up in bed. Looking about his dark room, the teenage boy, about 16 now, held a hand to his bare chest before running it down his body to make sure everything was still intact. "A dream! It was just a...just a dream..." he sighed out breathlessly, a bit relieved but still shaken by it.

His nightmare seemed to be getting longer and longer each time he had it, almost to the point he didn't want to sleep at night anymore. But it was hard not to when the nights were growing warmer and warmer with each passing day. Summer had just started and school had let out only a few days ago.

Flopping back down onto his back, the raven-haired teenager groaned. He hadn't even been sleeping under the covers and still he was hot. "Stupid heat..." he grumbled to himself, still panting somewhat as he turned over onto his side to reach for his alarm clock. It was six in the morning. Sighing again, he rolled back over onto his back, his skin glistening with sweat. He had been sleeping in only his boxers the past few nights in hopes that he'd feel less overheated upon waking, but the nightmares were preventing him from awakening in such a state.

He stared at his ceiling for a few moments, contemplating what he could do now that he was wide awake. It was too early to be up and running around town, but he had no intentions of going back to sleep anytime soon. Even the prospect of getting an early start spying on Zim, the evil, alien menace, was less than appealing to him.

The Irken hadn't made any progress in the five years he had been on Earth which led the young paranormal investigator to believe that perhaps he really WAS wasting his time chasing after Zim. But something still bothered him about the alien and his attempts to take over the world, all of which just led him back to his recurring nightmare.

Shaking those thoughts out of his head, he sat up in bed and grabbed a clean change of clothes. Perhaps he wouldn't spy on Zim today. After all, what harm could one day of not watching the other do?

Meanwhile...

Within the hidden depths of an alien base, an Irken stood before a large screen, staring up at it apprehensively, tapping his gloved, three fingered hand impatiently on the desk in front of him. The screen showed nothing but static, blaring it almost mockingly at the Irken.

"Anything?" he asked anxiously to his computer above him.

"No, still nothing, sir," replied the computer monotonically.

Zim only responded in an irritated grunt and tapped his fingers faster on the desk, still staring up at the screen in hope that there would be some change to it, his antennae twitching a little.

It had been three weeks now since he had lost complete contact with his leaders, the almighty Tallest. He had not been able to get a single transmission through let alone receive one.

At first he shrugged it off as signal problems or interference. Then as the days passed, with still no sign of them, he became more and more concerned. This was unusual. He usually called them every day or at least several times a week. There were occasional times when he couldn't get through to them in the past, but this was getting ridiculous.

Zim turned to look at a nearby clock. 6:09 AM. He'd been standing there for hours. Irkens didn't require much sleep. Really, they only needed a few hours a night, but he hadn't even given himself that.

"Well..." he began, "I'm sure it's nothing. They're probably concerned themselves," Zim said weakly to himself as he made his way to his base elevator.

School usually kept him occupied, learning about all the bizarre things of this world while plotting its end, fighting with a certain student who went there and plotting his end as well. He had grown a little in height during his years on earth which was useful considering how quickly the teenagers he had to mix with grew here, but unfortunately for him he was still quite short in comparison.

Recently, though, Zim seemed to lack any inspiration for world domination, his ideas were admittedly beginning to get a bit stupid, but that never stopped him and his human enemy, Dib, from battling against one-another. It amused him to see that human try to expose and defeat him with such feeble attempts. However, he had not seen the human for a while either. It may have been because of their summer break from school, but he wasn't so sure.

Perhaps Dib would decide to show up today and they'd engage in some ridiculous form of combat. Perhaps new ideas for the world's doom would finally spark in his mind and he could tell his leaders about all them, or at least, when he actually manages to get through to them again.

Back at the Membrane household, Dib stood before a mirror in the bathroom a few doors down from his room. Staring into it, he let his eyes wander as he gave himself a good look over. He had grown in height quite a bit over the years and stood about a good foot or two taller than Zim now; something he loved to remind the other of every chance he got. But he still wasn't anywhere near as fast as the alien. And despite his small size, the Irken was pretty strong compared to most humans. His training as an invader had put him in better shape than any human could ever be in.

Pressing a hand up to the cool surface of the mirror, Dib let out a small sigh. He, on the other hand, was one of the skinniest students in his class and picked on because of it. Sure, the Irken was skinnier than even he was, but his body structure was more of a lean, flexible one; whereas Dib was considered just plain scrawny in nature and extremely pale. In addition to not sleeping much lately, his appetite had dropped considerably and he hardly ate more than one meal daily.

It had all started a few months earlier, around the time he had started having those nightmares though he hadn't linked them to his physical condition at the time. If anything, he had chalked it all up to puberty or some similar reason. All that aside, he didn't feel too different nor did he think he looked bad either. He still wore glasses though with a smaller frame than the ones he had worn when he was eleven.

Reaching up to remove them and place on the counter in front of him, he stepped away from the mirror to take a quick shower. The last thing he wanted to do was go out in public feeling all sweaty and gross from the night before. If anything, the warmth of the daytime sun would only add to the uncomfortable feeling he had when he first woke up that morning.

Zim still had an uncomfortable feeling lurking in the pit of his squeedlyspooch as he walked out of the elevator. His mind began taunting him with fear and doubt until a loud noise distracted him and pulled him out of the unpleasant thoughts. "GIR!" he bellowed as he saw the little malfunctioning SIR unit sitting on the living room couch, watching some ridiculous childish cartoon that blared out loud gibberish noises from the television. "Turn that garbage off!" he continued as he slumped himself onto the couch.

"Aww but I wanna watchiiiit!" Gir whined in his shrill voice.

"Gir", Zim began as he snatched the remote away, "You're supposed to retrieve USEFUL information from this filthy place, not fill your memory bank with this... nonsense", he glared at the screen and began to flick through the channels aimlessly, "It's no wonder the humans are so stupid, watching this sad excuse for entertainment, but perhaps we can gain knowledge of other human weaknesses in doing so. GIR! Let us observe for a minute."

"WOO! We gonna watch teeveee!!" Gir replied excitedly.

"Yes, but STAY FOCUSSED! This is for important information retrieval only.....yep....oh so important this is", Zim slouched himself into the couch a little more and continued to flick through the channels, unsure of whether what he had just said was to convince Gir or himself.

It had only been ten minutes and Zim already felt as though his brain was slowly being sucked out through a straw. He turned his gaze to the front door for a moment, half hoping that his rival would burst in with his usual smug expression and latest feeble plan of exposing him. The last time that the two of them fought was roughly a week ago, and Zim had noticed something odd about Dib during that time. He seemed to show a lot less enthusiasm when they fought and just looked tired in a way.

He looked back to the television again. A gushy romance film was playing and showed a human male and female running up to one another gleefully and ending the film in a kiss. Zim stared at the screen curiously for a second, then stuck out his tongue in disgust and turned it off.

"Humans are disgusting," he said as he pulled himself up, placing on his wig and contact lenses. "Gir, enough of this earth television. Let us go out to do some observations... perhaps we shall see the Dib-pig. I'm sure his long absence means that he is planning something." he walked toward the door, feeling rather weary from his lack of sleep but soon shook it off. Gir jumped off the couch into his doggy disguise, giggling excitedly as he zoomed out of the door. Just before Zim stepped out, he pointed up at a little purple moose that floated into the living room. "MINIMOOSE!" he yelled commandingly, "Watch the base for me while I'm out, okay? Inflict great pain and suffering on any intruders!" Minimoose squeaked cheerfully in response, bobbing up and down in mid air. "EXCELLENT!!" Zim bellowed as he slammed the door shut to wander off into the streets.

Slipping out of his house at about ten after seven, Dib made his way down to the sidewalk, yawning and stretching out his arms to the sky. It was too early in the morning for him to be up and about, but sleeping hadn't been doing him any good lately, which was the only reason he'd ever force himself to get up and leave the house at such an early hour.

Walking in the direction of the city which was a good 15 minutes away from him, he decided perhaps he could grab something warm to drink at a small cafe and snack on something sweet for his breakfast a while. He wasn't necessarily hungry at the moment. If anything, he just wanted something that would wake him up a bit, which he would no doubt not find in his own house. They practically lived off of junk food and take out over at his house considering his father was rarely home and never went shopping. Thus, the only time any of them went to the store was when they absolutely needed something. Otherwise, carrying things home without a car was too much work for both Dib and Gaz.

The most either of them could carry at once was two bags, maybe three depending on the weight distribution. Yet neither of them wanted to go together to the store to get groceries. So only on a few occasions did they have real food in the house. But now wasn't one of those times. The weather outside had grown unbearably hot, making neither of them willing to go shopping anytime soon.

Reaching what could be considered the outskirts of the city within a matter of minutes, Dib could already make out the buildings off in the distance stretching upwards high above the streets below them. He wouldn't have to walk too much farther. Before long, he'd start passing all sorts of small antique shops, toy stores, and small restaurants. Locating exactly what he had been looking for, Dib entered a small café sitting at the end of a street. There weren't too many places open this early in the morning, but he knew of this one. He had only been there a few times when he had gotten up early to get an early start on Zim, but he knew they served only the best. This café's specific purpose was to serve those who had to get up early in the morning for school or work.

Grabbing a chocolate chip muffin and taking his place in line, he stared up at the large menu placed up on the wall behind the counter. Most of what was on it was coffee, a drink he wasn't particularly fond of. But thankfully for him, they served frozen hot-chocolate too, which would go perfectly with his muffin.

Ordering his drink just as soon as he reached the front of the line, he paid for his things before heading back out into the streets. Looking to his left and then to his right, he could see the world around him slowly coming back to life as people late for work rushed about in a frenzy to reach their desired locations. It had Dib sighing. He had been hoping for a quiet morning, but the hustle and bustle of the city was already getting on his nerves.

Shrugging it off, he continued on his way, knowing of a small park not too far from here that he could hopefully eat in peace at.

It had been 15 minutes from when Zim had left the base, and he couldn't decide which was worse: watching a display of human stupidity on the television screen or seeing it first hand as he walked the streets.

The intensity of heat from the sun seemed to grow stronger as the morning went on, making the walk even more unpleasant for him. He wasn't really sure why he had even left the base in the first place. Walking around the town only reminded him of how much he despised this place and all the people that inhabited it and how badly he wanted to have it all destroyed so he could finally return home to receive the long awaited praise from his leaders. Sometimes he feared that his over extended stay on this planet may cause them to loose faith in him, but like most of his doubts, he pushed it aside and did his best to ignore it.

Gir strolled along beside him on a leash, occasionally deciding to go limp so Zim would have to drag him along as they wandered the city. After a short while, Gir noticed an ice-cream stand across the street and started walking towards it in a hypnotized daze but was yanked back again on the leash by his master, who was staring up at a coffee shop curiously.

Zim watched several people queuing up, desperate to get their morning boost. "Pathetic." he said to himself , unknowingly letting go of the leash as Gir made a second attempt to wander off.

"Hmm… perhaps if I took away all the world's 'coffee' …it would bring humanity to it's weary, decaffeinated knees!!" He suddenly jumped a little at hearing a loud shout from behind him and spotted Gir running off down the street, holding a large tub of ice cream, giggling as he ran away.

"Hey! You gotta pay for that!" shouted a man from behind the stand, eyes directly on Zim. Zim let out a little "Eep" and decided now would be a good time to run as he darted off as fast as his legs could take him.

After he was sure that he wasn't being followed, Zim returned to a normal walking pace and muttered angrily to himself as he continued to walk along. He now found himself passing by a small park but stopped dead when he suddenly spotted someone familiar to him. Dib. He leaned himself up against a tree, careful to stay out of sight as he peered over to watch him suspiciously. Dib was sitting in the shaded area under a tree, helping himself to an unhealthy looking breakfast of some kind. As Zim watched him, he wondered why the human was up and around so early. Surely being off Skool meant long sleep-ins for most people.

It was the first time he had seen him in around a week, and he was curious of why he hadn't hassled him for so long, so perhaps today he should confront him. After all, he really had nothing better to do.

Zim strolled out from behind the tree and made his way over to where Dib was sitting. He folded his arms and smirked down at the human, who hadn't even noticed him walk over. "Well, if it isn't the Dib-stink. I'm guessing your long absence from trying to defeat me is because you've finally realized you are no match for ZIM!!"

Dib jumped a bit, of course, before turning in his seat to look back at Zim, who stood right behind him. Blinking wide eyes up at the Irken, he wasted no time at all getting back up onto his feet. "Zim! What are you doing here?!" he asked swiftly, taking a few steps back away from the other. He couldn't believe he hadn't heard Zim coming up behind him. Sure he was tired, and he had been picking at his food, only taking a bite or two out of his chocolate chip muffin, but to not hear or even sense Zim coming up behind him! That just wasn't normal for him. Over the years, he had trained himself to pick up on such things as that, especially when dealing with Zim. Perhaps he was losing it.

Glaring at the Irken, he did his best to regain his composure, determined not to let the disguised alien know that he had caught him completely off guard. "Actually, Zim," his voice was laced with malice as he said the other's name, "What I've realized is that you're nothing more than a bumbling idiot too blinded by your own ego to even realize that your plans for world conquest are meaningless and a waste of time." he smirked back at the Irken, ready to duck and run in the event that Zim decided to throw something at him for saying that.

He locked eyes with the Irken in an almost challenging way just to back away a split second later, his own eyes growing wide as something seemed to flash through his head for a split second. It had him nearly losing his balance as he squeezed his eyes tightly shut and brought a hand up to hold his head before blinking his eyes open again. It had only lasted a second, but he recognized what he had just seen, although it still didn't make much sense to him. It had been a fragment of his recent nightmares.

Face pale, he brought his eyes back up to meet Zim's again after a moment or two and glared. Whatever it was he had seen, it was gone now. Just a little less challenging, he continued to leer at the Irken as he had been doing only a few moments earlier, his focus now completely on Zim again. "What's the matter, Zim? Cat got your tongue?" his smirk grew as his eyes narrowed even more.

Zim, who had just been staring up at him blankly in slight puzzlement for a moment, shook his head quickly and glared up at the other in hatred. He had found himself distracted by how drained the human seemed to look in appearance today. Yes, he was usually quite pale compared to most humans, but today he just looked plain ill, and did he just stumble?

Zim responded by throwing up a hand to point at him sharply, baring his teeth threateningly in an angry scowl. "Fool! Do you not realize that delaying you're time brings your FILTHY planet nearer to its destruction? Are you that simple minded?" Scowl then turned into a smirk as he folded his arms and shook his head a little. "Or perhaps you've finally come to your senses to see that your disgusting race deserves nothing more than to be annihilated!…Oh wait! No, you'd be too stupid to ever come to that realization, stink-creature."

The Irken 'invader' leered up at the taller being, awaiting whatever he was going to throw back at him with slight anticipation. It felt like ages since the last time the two of them had faced each other in combat or even had a simple argument.

He hated the fact that the human was taller than him but always made sure that he knew it wouldn't make him at all vulnerable or weak in comparison as he stood his ground and positioned himself challengingly before the other.

Rolling his eyes, Dib merely nodded his head and threw his arms up in defeat, not truly taking any of what the Irken was saying seriously. "Uh huh. Yeah. Sure, Zim. You just keep on telling yourself that like you've been doing for the past five years. In the meantime, I've got more important things to do that DON'T involve your stupidness." he said nonchalantly, turning his back on the other to walk away casually. He was NOT in the mood to deal with Zim today. In fact, all he wanted in that moment was to get as far away from that park as possible. Something about that fragment of his nightmare that had just flashed through his head had made him feel suddenly uncomfortable about being anywhere near there, especially with Zim. Besides, the disguised alien hated being ignored, and Dib knew it.

Paying the other little mind as he began making his way elsewhere, he stopped suddenly when he felt something hitting him hard on the back of the head. Turning back around, he could see the muffin he had bought earlier that morning laying at his feet. Obviously, the Irken wasn't about to let him leave so easily. Not without a fight at least. So snatching the chocolate chip muffin up from off the ground, he narrowed his eyes on the other. "Fine. You want to play that way? Take this!" he said, taking aim and throwing it back at the Irken. Zim ducked however, letting out a short, somewhat high-pitched screech as he narrowly escaped having his head smacked by the seemingly dangerous yet harm-free baked good. Rather, the object merely bounced off of Gir who had come up behind Zim carrying the large tub of ice-cream from earlier, which was by now half empty.

Looking down at the muffin that had hit him, Gir instantly dropped the tub of ice-cream down on the ground by Zim's feet and gasped excitedly. Grabbing the muffin off the ground, he held it over his head and ran off giggling excitedly to do only God knows what with it.

Watching his insane little minion zoom off out of view yet again, Zim growled out something unintelligible and kicked the half eaten tub of icy goodness aside before bringing his focus back onto his rival. This whole situation was clearly beginning to have an opposite effect on him unlike how he had intended. How dare Dib turn his back on him, he thought to himself. Was his rival really beginning to doubt him?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Alright. For those of you who don't know, school has started back up for me, so my goal is going to be to try and update chapters to this story on weekends whenever new chapters are ready to be posted. Now I can't promise that I'll be 100% consistant with that plan, but I will do my best to keep up with it, so just bare with me here. Anyways, here's the next chapter to Sleepless Nights. Hope you all enjoy. ^_^

Rating: M

Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Zim: Sassafrass002

Dib: Me

Beta: Notgonnadie

-----

Zim's sudden annoyance with the other became blatant as he looked up at Dib with a hint of irritation in his expression. "More important!?" Zim yelled out melodramatically, taking a few stiff legged steps towards the other, bringing his hands up in front of him with his fingers slightly curled over as he scowled up at him angrily. "Things of more importance that do not involve the greatness that is Zim!? You speak filthy LIES hyumun!"

He approached his rival more closely, getting up in the others face threateningly with his hands now balled into fists behind him. "I'm not falling for this pathetic act of nonchalance, Dib-beast," he began as he brought up a hand to poke him sharply in the chest. "Clearly you are up to something and waiting for me to let my guard down." he said, his eyes completely fixed on the eyes of his enemy who just stared back at him, not looking the least bit impressed.

Slapping the Irken's hand away from his chest, Dib took a few steps back away from him to regain a bit of his personal space, glaring all the while. "Yeah right, Zim! Like I'd waste my time coming up with some plan to take you down when you always inevitably end up taking yourself down with your own stupidity!" he spat out, taking a few steps forward himself, this time causing Zim to back step a bit. Jabbing his own finger against Zim's chest, he ended with a shove, pushing Zim down onto the ground underneath him. Towering over the disguised alien, he could see Zim's eyes had grown wide at having been thrust onto the ground. Narrowing them murderously on him, Zim shifted his gaze to the side for a moment just to lay eyes on the tub of ice-cream he had kicked aside only a few moments ago.. Then, as if it were calling out to him, he reached out and took hold of it so he could thrust his hand into it and dig out a fairly large sized scoop of ice-cream.

Wasting no time at all, he was back on his feet in a matter of seconds, shoving the icy cold dairy product right into Dib's face. Pulling away with a small yell, Dib brought his hands up to try and wipe away what he could of the ice-cream. But just as he managed to rub enough of it out of his eyes so he could see, Zim took to throwing more and more balls of ice-cream at him with surprisingly good accuracy. Having absolutely no control whatsoever over the situation, all Dib could do was run around helplessly, trying to dodge everything Zim was throwing at him until the Irken ran out of ammunition. But it was no use. As hard as he had tried to keep the other from scoring any hits, when Zim finally ran out of ice-cream to throw at him, he found himself to be completely covered in the majority of it.

Looking down at his now ruined clothes, Dib glared daggers at Zim. The Irken wasn't about to get away with that. Stomping up to the disguised alien, who was by now standing back laughing mockingly at him, Dib reached down to grab his cup of frozen hot chocolate, which was by now only slightly cold, and removed the cover so he could splash the still mostly full cup in the other's face.

Zim let out a loud shriek, throwing himself back and quickly bringing his arms up to frantically rub off the seemingly acidic beverage from his face as it fizzled slightly against his skin. Holding his hands up in front of his face and blinking at them a few times to check that he hadn't been partially blinded from that sudden incident, he ran a hand down his face one last time before flicking aside some droplets with it as he glared up furiously at the human, his eyes now filled with rage. "Oh, you're going to PAY for that, you FILTHY worm!"

Zim took a step forward, growling menacingly at Dib, causing him slight alarm and to take a step back from the psychotic looking Irken. Eyes locked on his rival for a moment, Zim kicked up the empty ice-cream tub from the ground directly at Dib who just blinked down at it after it simply bounced off him lightly and landed back on the ground before him again. "…Yeah…that's really-" Before Dib could finish his sentence, Zim was on him. He kicked Dib in the shin making him yelp out, lose his balance and then topple over as Zim threw himself on top of him, pinning him down by slightly digging his clawed fingers into Dib's shoulders as he glared down at him maliciously.

Both now being food covered and on the ground, the two of them probably looked ridiculous to those who passed by. "If we weren't out in broad daylight right now, stink-beast, I'd have driven a robotic leg straight through your revolting guts by now!"

Kicking out his legs in an attempt to gain back control over the situation, Dib grit his teeth and squeezed one eye tightly shut as he felt blood dripping down from where Zim's claws were embedded in his skin. "G-get off of me, Zim, before I kick your ass for throwing all that ice-cream at me!" he threatened the other as he struggled to escape from underneath the Irken. Bringing his hands up to grasp the alien's wrists tightly, he pushed as hard as he could to remove Zim's hands from his shoulders, finally managing to force the smaller body off of his own and onto his back. On top of Zim and the situation now, Dib managed to pin the thrashing Irken down to the ground long enough to recover from the shock of having been tackled to the ground. But it didn't last nearly as long as he would have liked it to as Zim somehow found the strength and adrenaline enough to top Dib again, throwing him roughly onto his back, this time his hands wrapped around the humans neck in an attempt to choke him. Grasping the other's wrists once again, Dib wasted no time in bringing a leg up to knee Zim in the gut, causing him to let go of the boy's neck long enough for Dib to roll over onto his stomach as he coughed and gasped for air. But the Irken recovered fast, this time taking hold of Dib's scythe lock of hair and giving it a few good yanks at which Dib let out a pained yelp. "H-Hey! Quit it!" he tried to look back at the other but stopped when all his moving around just made it hurt even more.

Reaching back behind him, he grabbed hold of Zim's arms and bucked the back end of him upwards, causing Zim to go flipping forwards up and over him, landing on his back in front of Dib so his face was right under Dib's. Blinking down at the Irken for a split second, Dib was quick to back away from the alien and get back up onto his feet, his clothes torn and hanging off of him messily. Zim looked no better as he sat up slowly, holding a hand to his back and completely out of breath now. "Just what the hell was all that about?!" he demanded, glaring down at the Irken. Zim merely turned his head to glare back at him, looking a bit pissed that he hadn't gotten the last blow in that little skirmish of theirs. That's when his eyes seemed to widen as one of his hands brushed over something on the ground next to him..

Shifting his gaze down to look at whatever it was, he smirked when he realized it was Dib's wallet. It must have fallen out of the human's pocket when they had been fighting. At first, Dib hadn't noticed, but when he saw the Irken's facial expression change from scowl to smirk, it suddenly became painfully obvious as his own eyes dropped down to where Zim's own were looking. There, in the Irken's hand, was his wallet and all he could do in that moment was panic. Eyes wide, he took a step forward as Zim got back to his feet, wallet in hand. "Zim, wait! What are you-?" he couldn't finish as he gasped suddenly, realizing that the Irken was walking over towards a medium sized pond with it, ready to throw it were Dib to so much as take another step towards him.

Feeling that the situation was directed in his favor now, Zim continued to smirk evilly at his human rival as he held the wallet outstretched over the pond. Zim struggled to keep his balance for a second from standing up so suddenly after being thrown over and kneed in the gut by the other, but he soon managed to keep himself stable and focused on Dib's rather worried expression, loosely swaying the wallet between his gloved fingers to taunt him and amusedly watch him nervously follow its movements with his eyes.

Zim withdrew his arm for a moment to hold up the wallet in front of him, briefly looking at it before shifting his gaze to smirk at the human again. "Hmm… Judging by the look on your face, Dib-stink, this thing clearly holds great importance to you." he said, his tone of voice deliberately mocking the human as he spoke. He bared his teeth to smile at the other teasingly only to make Dib glare back hatefully and take a sudden step forward but stop right in his tracks as the Irken reacted to that by drawing back an elbow and positioning himself ready to throw the wallet. "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you, earth-STINK," Zim began tauntingly, "Or else you can just say goodbye to your precious earth moneys."

Silently debating on the situation in slight panic, Dib's eyes darted from the wallet to Zim, back to the wallet, and then back over to Zim again. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen regardless of whether Dib moved himself or not, and, of course, Zim was enjoying every moment of his plight in the predicament he'd put Dib in. But before Dib could even lift a foot, Zim tossed the wallet right into the middle of the pond and began maliciously laughing at him as he quickly darted over to the edge only to watch hopelessly as his wallet sank into the murky water and then scowl over at the laughing alien beside him. Feeling that the other had really crossed the line now, Dib quickly advanced on him again.

Zim, who was still too busy laughing, hadn't even noticed Dib's swift movement towards him and yelped out loudly as Dib thrust his hands against him, pushing him right into the pond behind him. Zim stumbled backwards almost completely falling back into the water and desperately trying to keep his balance as he let out a shriek and waved his arms around in panic. Wincing and expecting immense pain, his eyes widened and he looked down, dumbfounded by discovering that the water at where he was standing barely reached the top of his boots. He stood himself straight again and glared over at his enemy, growling angrily and kicking up a load of dirty water in his direction.

Letting out a startled noise and backtracking a bit, Dib brought up his hands to wipe away the mess of dirty water and mud that had hit him square in the face. Easier said than done when the entire front of his body was now covered in filth and ice-cream. Clothes weighed down by water now, Dib could only glare daggers at the other as he made another advance on him to grab the front of Zim's uniform at which the disguised alien made a disgusted face. "You bastard! I had something irreplaceable in that wallet you just threw into the pond!" he screamed in the other's face, all the while pointing in the direction of where Zim had thrown his wallet. Eyes narrowing even more on the Irken, Dib brought back an arm before punching Zim square in the jaw, causing his head to snap back and him to take a few more steps back into the pond he was standing in. Fortunately for him, he once again didn't lose his balance like he almost had the first time as he came to stand a few feet away from Dib, rubbing his face where the human had just punched him. Absolutely furious now, he kicked more dirt into Dib's face again before taking off on foot to run back towards his base. Quickly swiping the specks of debris that had gotten into his eyes away, Dib took off chasing after the Irken, no longer seeming to notice or even care how hot it was outside. All he could think about in that moment was capturing the alien and making him pay for having thrown his wallet into the pond.

But as always, the Irken was faster than him and made it back to his base a good 5 minutes faster than it had taken him to make his way into the city. Dib, however, managed to stay close behind him the entire way there, running smack into the signature men's room door that marked Zim's oddly shaped and colored house. Pounding on the door angrily with his left fist and jiggling the doorknob with his right hand, trying to force the door open, Dib yelled outside the house, the tone of his voice enraged and an absolute annoyance to Zim's antennae. "Zim! I know you're in there! Come out here and face me, you coward!" he raged and hammered on the door before bringing his left hand down to take hold of the doorknob also and try to force it open. It was at that point that Zim's lawn gnomes turned to face him before firing off an assortment of lasers. Letting out a small scream of pain, Dib instantly let go of the doorknob and made a dash for the sidewalk, rolling out the entrance to the fence in an attempt to dodge their laser blasts.

Finding himself sitting outside the premises of Zim's base on the pavement of the sidewalk within a matter of seconds, Dib looked back behind himself to glare at the green house before blinking his eyes wide open when he realized the tail of his trench coat was filled with holes now that had smoke rising up from them from where the lasers had shot through his clothes. Glaring down at the damage done to his beloved trench coat, he brought his gaze back up to scowl at the door to Zim's house again. "And you owe me a new trench coat, you jerk!" he yelled before being hit with another laser from Zim's lawn gnomes and deciding then was probably the best time to leave. So scrambling to his feet, he made a run for his own house, only slowing down when he realized he was no longer being shot at.

Snickering evilly to himself as Dib ran from his front lawn a smoldering, food covered mess, Zim's amused smirk quickly disappeared as he winced and brought his hands up to his mouth once a sharp pain suddenly ripped its way through his jaw. "Ahh…mmph… stupid Dib…and his stupid…STINK!…oww." Zim threw himself back onto the couch and continued muttering angrily as he removed his contact lenses and wig, which was now a nest of pure mess, and chucked them onto the floor in front of him before bringing his hands back to his face.

For whatever reason, he felt no satisfaction from that brief encounter with his enemy like he had hoped for. Perhaps that was mainly due to the fact that Dib had gotten the last blow in that ordeal, and it all ended with him getting punched in the jaw. Or perhaps it was that maybe the entire ordeal seemed rather pointless, that he was only picking fights with the human out of nothing but boredom and for his own amusement. He wasn't sure, but either way, he wondered what could have possibly been in that wallet to cause him to react so violently. Sure, he'd thrown the wallet in the pond to intentionally piss him off, but how he'd completely overreacted to that was just stupid. "I had something irreplaceable in that wallet…" Those words rang through his mind for a moment. "Something…irreplaceable? Hmm." Now he was just curious. As he pondered over it, his little purple minion floated into view and meeped cheerfully to greet his master which then gave Zim a sudden idea. "Minimoose! I have a job for you. Go to the city park and retrieve the human's wallet from the pond, then we'll see what all this fuss is about."

With that, the little moose let out another high pitched meep and let itself float out of the window.

Whether Minimoose could actually find the wallet in the murky water of the pond or he really cared about what he may find in there, he wasn't really so sure, but at the moment, it seemed that boredom made him strive for anything remotely interesting. Just as he picked up the television remote from beside him, Gir zoomed in through the front door, giggling excitedly, startling Zim and causing him to gasp and drop the remote. "GIR! … You left the door open again." Zim got up from the couch and stomped over towards the door, glaring back at Gir, who was now watching cartoons, before tuning his attention back to the door. He jumped back in surprise at seeing Minimoose hovering before him, covered in grime and bits of pond weed, holding what appeared to be the human's wallet between his nubby little front legs. "Ehm…wow. That was fast. Good work, Minimoose."

Zim closed the front door as the purple moose floated in, and he lifted a hand to take the wallet from him. Holding it in front him, ready to take a peek inside, he suddenly let out a yelp and tossed it onto the floor behind him. The dampness of the wallet had soaked through his gloves a little, causing him a mild pain to his hands. Growling out angrily and throwing his arms up in defeat, Zim walked back over to the couch and plopped himself back onto it as he stared up miserably at the display of childish nonsense on the screen in front of him. This day was clearly not going so well.

Staring up at the television screen in what could only be described as a hypnotized daze, Gir seemed to come back to right as a series of commercials started, interrupting his show. Blinking for the first time in probably 5 minutes, he looked over at his master who half sat, half laid on the couch across from him, scowling at the TV screen in annoyance, lost in his own thoughts for the time being. Turning his attention back on the mindless televised programming, Gir let out a loud squeal just as his new favorite commercial came on the screen. It was an advertisement for Bloaty's Pizza Hog which was featuring some new chocolate cheesy cheese pizza for only a limited amount of time. Zim grimaced at the sound of Gir's voice and the image they showed on TV of the disgusting earth food product. Lower eyelid twitching, he couldn't help but let his eyes wander to a corner of the room that was littered with empty pizza boxes. Gir had listened to this commercial so many time, Zim practically had it memorized by now. And to make matters worse, each and every time Gir had seen it, he had gone out to that horrible food establishment to buy another revolting flavored pizza.

Zim couldn't stand it anymore. If he saw another pizza, he would surely become sick to his squeedly spooch and spew vomit all over the place. Looking back at the screen just as that sad excuse for a human in a pig costume came into view, Zim moved his lips to the words as he spoke. "Hey, you! Yeah, you! Uhhh....Come and buy our new chocolate cheesy cheese pizza! It's full of cheese and uhhhh....chocolate! So get it while it's still avail-availa-Gah! What does that word say? Oh yeah! Available!" the horrible cheese pig finished, some unidentifiable liquid substance dripping down his mouth.

Shuddering noticeably, Zim cringed as Gir let out another high-pitched squeal and zoomed over to his side of the couch to jump up and down on top of him. "Mastah! Mastah! Can I have more monies to go and buy more pizza from da piggy on da TV?! Pleeeeaaaaseeee!!!" he begged, his excitement nearly overwhelming him to the point of exploding.

Shoving Gir off of him and standing up to dust himself off as though Gir had covered him in something disgusting, Zim glowered down at the malfunctioning SIR unit. "No, Gir. No more pizzas. I don't want anymore of that FILTH coming into this house. Understand?" he said sternly before turning to head on back down to his lab to check and see if his leaders might have called while he had been gone. Lower lip quivering, Gir let out a howling screech of a cry, running around in circles, rolling around on the ground, and jumping off the walls in hysteria. Zim merely ignored it however, having gotten used to Gir's little temper tantrums by now, and headed down to the lab.

Screaming his head off and jumping up and down, Gir instantly stopped as something on the ground caught his eye. "Ooooh!" he cooed and picked up the wallet Zim had left there. Opening up the wallet, Gir gasped happily as he found a few wet and soggy $5 bills inside it and hugged himself. Surely this would be enough to pay for his chocolate cheesy cheese pizza! "Yay!" he cheered for himself before rocketing out of the house towards Bloaty's Pizza Hog.

Meanwhile, back with Dib, the boy was already by this time about half way home when he stopped suddenly at the corner of a street and looked off in the direction of the city. As much as he wanted to get home so he could shower off all the filth clinging to his clothes and body, he couldn't stop himself from turning and heading back in the direction of the city. Reaching the park he had stopped at to have breakfast and unfortunately encountered Zim at about 10 minutes later, he made his way over to the edge of the pond where he assumed his wallet still was. Although he had convinced himself that everything inside of it was probably ruined the moment it hit the water, he still couldn't help but wade in to about where he remembered Zim throwing it. His clothes were already pretty ruined anyways, so getting them wet and even more dirty didn't really bother him too much at this point.

Reaching his hands down into the murky water which came up to his waist, he began searching the bottom of the pond in hopes that he might still be able to recover what he had had inside of it, even if it were ruined by now. But after a good 5 minutes of searching, he slapped the water and threw his arms up in defeat. He couldn't find it anywhere.

Back with Gir, the disguised android was just making his way out of the pizza parlor with a slice of pizza in one hand and his box of chocolate cheesy cheese pizza in the other when he heard a rather familiar voice far off across the street from where he was. "Dammit!" came the voice of a certain 17 year old paranormal investigator as he got up from having just tripped on his way out of the pond.

Staring over at the human as he finally managed to pull himself out of the pond to wipe off some of the dirt that had just splattered across his shirt with a disgusted look on his face, Gir quickly opened the box of pizza so he could stuff the entire rest of it into his head for later and threw Dib's wallet into his mouth to swallow it now that he had no more use for it. Then, giggling to himself, he ran across the street a chocolate covered mess to follow after Dib. He was curious as to where the human was heading now. Dib being none the wiser about Gir's presence due to his sudden annoyance about the situation concerning his wallet and the irreplaceable object he had been carrying in it, he threw the front door to his house open, muttering curses to himself angrily about how he would make Zim pay for everything that had happened that day as he made his way up the stairs, not bothering to close the front door behind him. Somebody else in the house would probably get it later anyways. For the time being, he was too lost in his own thoughts to notice or even care.

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A/N: And we end there because I suck. Anywyas, hopefully the next chapter will be up by next weekend. If not, then I apologize in advance for the wait.

And now to thank everybody that reviewed on that last chapter.

To The-lonely-loners: Well, thanks for the review. Here's chapter 2 for you. 83

To WitchbladeHell: Thank you for the review. We're doing our best to keep Zim and Dib as in character as possible for this story. 83

And to anybody else that reviews- Thank you all. Much love to all our reviewers!


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